The Psychology of New Age Spirituality

Why do some people get really into New Age practices and beliefs? Explanations can range from charitable and optimistic ones (e.g. people finding pathways to truth and wellness) to less charitable and cynical ones (e.g. some people are not scientifically literate, or they’re prone to cling to wellness trends to feel more ‘spiritual’).

In answering why some people are attracted to New Age spirituality but not others, a charitable type of explanation might view personal experience (e.g. of other realms and powers) as necessary to adopt New Age practices and beliefs, and not everyone has had such experiences; whereas the less charitable explanation might see New Agers as unable to think critically about strange experiences they might’ve had.

However, there also seem to be certain psychological traits that predict someone’s tendency to adopt New Age practices and beliefs. A 2005 study published in Personality and Individual Differences was the first attempt to explore the cognitive and personality correlates of New Age practices and beliefs. The team of Oxford University psychologists behind the study discovered a correlation between New Age practices and beliefs and schizotypy, characterised by magical thinking, a disposition towards looseness of associations, and emotional hypersensitivity. Let’s unpack what these tendencies involve:

• Schizotypy is not, in and of itself, a mental health problem. In psychology, it is seen as a set of personality traits in the general population, and it involves a continuum of traits and experiences, ranging from normal dissociative, imaginative states to less common and extreme states of mind such as schizophrenia.
• Magical thinking, or magical ideation, is a schizotypy personality trait; it is the belief that unrelated events are causally connected, despite no plausible causal link existing between them. Also known as superstitious thinking, this tendency is associated with supernatural experiences and beliefs, including telepathy, clairvoyance, astrology, and a sixth sense.
• Looseness of associations is used to refer to a lack of connection between different ideas, resulting in disorganised thinking. It often occurs in schizophrenia.
• Emotional hypersensitivity is a type of emotional dysregulation that results in low frustration tolerance, impulsivity, a short temper, emotional outbursts, and sudden mood changes. People who are emotionally hypersensitive struggle to manage their emotions and often feel attacked.

Understanding these correlations is not meant to pathologise people who subscribe to New Age spirituality. It would be inaccurate to say that New Age spirituality is an indication that someone is mentally unwell. It is a set of beliefs and practices that has certain cognitive and personality correlates (traits that exist on a spectrum). These traits can sometimes be adaptive (i.e. enhancing well-being) and lead to an increased imaginative capacity and ability to have spiritual experiences. But for some people, there may be a connection between genuine mental health problems and their propensity to embrace New Age practices and beliefs. Maladaptive traits like the extreme end of schizotypy, featuring extreme magical thinking, can make certain aspects of New Age spirituality appear convincing.

Maladaptive traits may also attract one to New Age ideas — like chakras, psychic experiences, reincarnation, synchronicity, ‘law of attraction’ thinking, energy healing (e.g. crystal healing), and mystical-type self-help — as a way of coping with emotional distress. They can provide meaning and order to unusual ideation and experiences, or one’s life in general. Nevertheless, research by Dr Rosemary Aird has indicated that New Age spirituality can worsen people’s mental health because it is often too individualistic and self-focused. She found that non-traditional forms of spirituality were associated with higher rates of depression and anxiety. Aird stated, “Their focus on self-fulfillment and self-improvement and the lack of emphasis on others’ wellbeing appears to have the potential to undermine a person’s mental health and social relationships.” New Age spirituality may encourage people to feel more isolated from others and focus on themselves.

In New Age spirituality, there is an emphasis on the connectedness of all things, which in itself is not so controversial, as interconnectedness is a common form of metaphysical thought. However, concepts like karma and synchronicity can allow individuals to establish an unending network of causal connections. One can believe in fundamental interconnectedness without committing to the New Age belief that trivial events are imbued with rare, spiritual significance. (The New Age framing of interconnectedness is often self-focused, with causal connections made between unrelated events, or trivial happenings rendered mystical or cosmic, as being important to one’s life. The comedian Alistair Green encapsulated this way of thinking in this video.)

The researchers behind the 2005 study found that magical ideation was a strong predictor of New Age practices and beliefs. Someone who exhibits this way of thinking views specific thoughts, words, emotions, or rituals as having a special influence on the world around them. It does not always cause harm. Nonetheless, it can be a feature of forms of mental distress such as thought disorder (in schizophrenia), schizotypal personality disorder (intense discomfort with social interactions and close relationships, marked by eccentricity, odd beliefs, and difficulty reading social cues), and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Magical thinking is more strongly correlated with New Age spirituality than paranoid thinking (again, not all magical thinking is tied to negative emotional experiences).

Previous research found that men score higher on the Eccentric/Odd Behavior subscale of schizotypal personality than women, whereas women score higher on the Odd Beliefs/Magical Thinking subscale. The authors of the 2005 study underline that “Women practice New Age activities more often and have more New Age beliefs and interests than men,” and note the gender differences in schizotypy, with women scoring higher on the magical ideation scores. Gender differences in personality can, therefore, help explain why women are more likely to hold New Age beliefs than men.

In a previous post, I looked at the connections between personality, New Age spirituality, and conspiracy thinking. Indeed, many of the tendencies that attract someone to New Age practices and beliefs — such as a tendency to detect ‘hidden’ patterns and correspondences and an attraction to alternative paradigms — can draw someone to conspiracy theories (which are often related to health, medicine, and New World Order-type concepts). Of course, it is not only New Age ideas that are influenced by personality traits; all beliefs are, to some extent, dictated by unconscious forces and our temperaments. However, the established links between personality and New Age spirituality do help to shed light on why many ideas are so easily embraced, despite a lack of evidence presented for believing in them.

Originally published at https://www.samwoolfe.com on August 5, 2024.